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Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Another Taste of Suwon and Seoul

We enjoy taking visitors to Suwon which is about an hour south of Seoul. There is a nice Korean Folk Village there and an impressive fortress wall to stroll upon. This city famous for it's "Galbi", or beef ribs, gives us a chance to flavor a little more of Korea. So that was our destination with Doug, Sandra, Alex and Parker on Monday, March 30, 2015.

As would become "usual", Parker with his blonde hair, was singled out to help with the village dance show. And Doug got quite a beating when several visitors gathered around to help demonstrate some of the traditional torture methods! Watching the demonstrations of equestrian skills, forging metal spoons, harvesting and weaving silk, and pottery making were insightful.

A sampling of traditional Korean dishes at the village left a not-so pleasant taste in the mouths of Parker, Alex, and Sandra.

So when we left the village, we stopped at a galbi restaurant to see if they might find the taste of Korean barbecue a little more pleasant.

Satisfied, we took a walk along the Suwon Fortress. When fatigued from all the stair-stepping, we hopped aboard the touristy "Dragon Train" to circle the rest of the city wall. It was fun to see Korean's trying their hand at archery, and to see the young girls all giggle and blush as handsome Alex and Parker waved a friendly "annyeong-haseyo" to them. A small Buddhist Temple was our last stop.

On Tuesday, leaving the past behind, we turned our attention to the future with a visit to "T.um"; one of Korea's telecommunication company's museum of technology. T.um is designed to stimulate the imagination with the industry's possibilities. They demonstrate the future technology of the home with it's infra-red motion-sensored control of everything. Alex was selected to demonstrate the features of the "self-driven" car of the future, and we saw how avatars will be created to assist us with virtual shopping experiences.

Then we wandered through Myeongdong again where among other things, we sampled a french-fry crusted corn dog and some colorful cotton candy before stopping at "Dr. Fish Spa" to let Sandra, Alex and Parker get nibbled on by some hungry little fish. Aaaahhh, the result is amazingly soft feet and legs!

We previewed Namdaemun market and wandered through the basement of Shinseagae, where the "grocery market" displays all kinds of beautiful tempting treats!

With jet-lagged and tour-tired bodies, we spent the evening relaxing at home prior to an early retirement to bed.